The Fate of A Realm-A Trip to The World of Hollow
A Garganta opened in the sky as Demono Hizen descended upon the barren world of the Hollow. It had been over 1000 years since he had last been here and yet it all seemed so familiar. The plants unchanged, the small Hollow still as tiny as ever. Demono had spent many years here, fascinated by the constant evolution of the Menos. It was only once Shigekuni Yamamoto founded the Gotei 13 that he had decided to leave. Demono walked along, Kiyoshi had said that the Society would be in a bunker not far from the palace. The palace had not been there when Demono last set foot in the world, an interesting addition he thought. The ground below him felt strange as always. Hueco Mundo always had that odd feeling to it. He walked forth towards the palace. Just a little up ahead, he could see the bunker that Kiyoshi had mentioned. Hidden in the ground but not totally invisible from sight. He approached with caution as Kiyoshi had said. Suddenly, he found himself floating in midair, unable to move. Vazdah stepped out, his glowing red sword held at his side. "Did you honestly believe that you could enter my world, approach my hideout and I would not see you coming? Foolish man, what business have you here?" "I come on behalf of Kiyoshi, I believe he said the two of you had an alliance of sorts?" "Kiyoshi you say, it has been a long time. You are a Kosumosukihaku then? Very well." Vazdah sealed his sword, causing Demono to fall to the ground. "Now, what is that you want." "Did you have to drop me? Ow, that hurt. Anyway, Kiyoshi has sent me to inform you that their is a traitor amongst your followers, someone is using you to help Haru Nakamaru." "Kiyoshi is behind on his times then. The traitor Raiken has been dead for months. He died during our conquest of Seireitei. Afterward I found in his belongings, intelligence that he was sending out. He was never actually a part of the Gotei 13 as he claimed." "I see then, my trip here was a waste. I will be off then." As Demono walked away, Vazdah pulled out his sword once more and uttered "Collapse" under his breath. Demono was pulled back towards Vazdah. "I did not tell you you could leave." "But I finished my business here. Now please let me be off." "You can leave when you have defeated me in combat." "What?" "The last time I faced one of your kind I was weak, barely being able to increase the gravity of the area to more than 10x normal. After that fight, my power surged from the giant amounts of Reishi that I had been surrounded in. Your kind is at war with Haru no? I have pledged my support in your war. I care not what happens to your race but I wish to kill Haru. The man is a maniac who has lost touch with reality. In order to do so, my power will need to increase once more. I know you wish to grow stronger as well, it is in your eyes. You feel you are weak and wish to gain your own power. What do you think a fight against an opponent like me would do to your abilities? I am not far from reaching Haru's level and thus I would be close to Kiyoshi as well. You would have no reason not to fight me." "Well, very well. How would you like to do this?" "We shall make this fight mutually beneficial. If you would pump large amounts of Reishi into the battlefield, I will gradually increase the gravity in the area, speeding up the increase in your skills." Vazdah raised his sword outward. "Let us begin, we shall start at 1.5x normal gravity." Beginnings The air grew heavy as Vazdah increased the gravity surrounding them. "You might want to try walking first, see how different it feels." "I'll be fine, just worry about yourself." "Very well then, let us begin." The two men raised their swords at each other, neither daring to make the first move. They circled for a minute before Vazdah released a cero and charged into an attack. Demono, still adjusting to the slight change in gravity, almost did not have enough time to attack. He countered with his own sacred beam and blocked the attack. The two traded blows for a little before Demono broke off and silently moved away. He came in for a sneak attack on Vazdah but the masked fighter effortlessly blocked. Vazdah broke his guard as he warned Demono that the gravity in the area would increase once more now to 5x normal. Demono increased his production of Reishi to prepare. Vazdah's first strike in the new gravity was a powerful side arm swipe. Demono moved to block but could not move his arm in time and was sent flying to the left. Vazdah quickly caught up to his opponent's downed body and kicked him into the air. Demono tried once more to defend himself but was unable to adjust his reaction time before Vazdah delivered another devastating blow. The masked man walked toward his opponent this time. Demono stood, using what little skill he had in healing to aid his wounds. He needed to time to adjust his body and reaction time to the new gravity. As Vazdah approached, Demono moved far away silently. He would have only a minute to adjust before Vazdah found him. He threw a couple of punches, seeing how long it took for his body to respond to his commands. The delay was small but in a battle like this, it would be all the difference. He continued to punch until Vazdah approached from behind. The hybrid swung his sword and Demono managed to block with his own. He was finally adjusting. The two clashed swords again before Demono delivered his whip kick to Vazdah's abdomen. It did not do much, slightly causing him to jerk back. Vazdah countered with an uppercut to Demono's jaw followed by a slash across his chest from his blade. Demono stood up, "Continuing like this will be pointless. I cannot match you in regular combat, especially in this raised gravity. If you are going to slow my speed, I will slow yours. Try this on, the Hizen clan special ability, Jikantai." Vazdah noticed no change at first. He stepped forward and watched as Demono speedily approached him and cut his shoulder. His reactions had slowed but he had no idea what the extent of the ability was. He walked forward again as Demono cut his back before he could make a movement. Suddenly however, he easily cut Demono before he could move a muscle. A few steps to the left and Demono was back to slicing him up with ease. A realization came upon Vazdah; he had figured it out. Time was being controlled to such a fine extent to control the flow of it in different ways every few feet. He rushed back and forth, left and right, taking note of everything in his head. "A fine trick you have here.Unfortunately you leave a weakness in it. It's like a puzzle, no two pieces are exactly the same and similar pieces never are placed next to each other. There are no slowed time areas that are concurrently next to each other. So if your opponent is, say, me, I can do this." Vazdah hurried through several zones, his movements faster than would seem possible. He never hit a single slow zone. He came from behind, in front, the side, each time hitting Demono. Demono was in awe, his opponent had actually figured out how to optimize his every move to take advantage of the fast areas. He had no choice, he had to disable the spell. As he did so, his body collapsed to the ground. Vazdah had once more increased the gravity in the area. "30x normal, my Shikai's limit. Do not try to move too quickly, it will break your bones. A Graceful Dance of Stillness Demono could not move, the gravity was too intense for him to handle. He needed to continue but knew of no way. He would have to resort to his Shikai. "Flutter, Tenshi." A wave of pure light set about the area as Demono's blade grew and lost its color. He filled the area with massive amounts of Reishi in preparation. Placing a barrier around himself, he then called out Shuuban as the battlefield exploded. Vazdah stood up after the blast, his arms burned, his mask cracked. "I did not see that one coming, good job, though it will take more than that to kill me." Vazdah placed his hand over his broken mask and waved it anew, fixing the cracks and restoring his powers. "If you plan on using your shikia abilities, so will I." Vazdah pointed his sword at Demono who was suddenly lifted high into the air as a large chunk of the ground came up and hit him before he was slammed back down under the massive gravity. He was next pulled forward before being pushed back. Demono was heavily injured, even if he could withstand the gravity, his broken bones would keep him from moving at all. He needed time to heal but he needed a way to get it. He had only one option. "Fukumen" he called out as he disappeared from site. He inched his way over from where he was as he began healing himself. "Very well then. Hide yourself. It does not matter. I can feel myself growing stronger from your Reishi output." Vazdah tightened his fist to test out his strength. "Come on out." Demono healed the last of his wounds. A rough patch but it would do. He became visible once more and dashed towards Vazdah, activating Onken. The two clashed in a flurry of sword swings. Demono's Onken gave him an edge but Vazdah turned the tides firing Hadō no. 4 and tossing his sword into the air to fire a cero at the same time. Demono was hit and fell to the ground. Vazdah caught his sword and continued his attack. Left with no other choice, Demono falls back and activates his Bankai. The light in the area faded as an explosion of it covered Demono. As it faded, his winged form approached Vazdah. The two clashed this time Demono taking the edge. Vazdah backed up, "A nice little form you have there. I hope you are not expecting the same from me though." "You make jokes but i doubt you can fight under the abilities this form grants me." "I doubt that. Try your best cosmos soul." Demono held his blade out and called out his technique, Kūhaku. The battlefield became enveloped in a thick darkness.